The Mutant Menace

How many movies does it take for a franchise to die? If you ask Fox, it certainly wouldn’t be six. Because that’s about how many X-Men movies they’ve done, that were subpar or just plain bad. Give or take a few, of course.

Now before you jump at me about this, remember this is my opinion, and you are entitled to your own.

Personally, I’ve been a fan of the X-Men only since the early nineties. I was introduced to them through the cartoon and I thought, hey this would be an amazing movie! It’s honestly too bad that the first movie that we got wasn’t actually owned by Marvel. I’m sure if they had the reins of them, we would have had a bit of a better story. But for what it was, I guess the first X-Men movie wasn’t so bad. It laid out a good premise and plot and had some good action scenes. The villains were clearly dis-likable, and yet you didn’t hate them (mostly because you understood some of why they were doing what they were doing).

The next two movies… just no. I don’t know what they were doing with the entire plot or whatever you want to call it, but it wasn’t the plot that it could have been. They could have done so much more with Jean Grey as a villain. Phoenix is one of the most terrifying entities in all of Marvel Comics, and they basically turned it into a… joke.

I think they really tried to just wrap up a story they had sunk a lot of money into getting, and wanted to put out the biggest money grabber they could. Honestly, maybe the Dark Phoenix saga was the biggest way to do that. But really, it isn’t the best story for a single movie. Even if they had built it up better, to do it right… it might need to have a whole series. Get some real build up.

The Wolverine movies were up next. The only one worth even talking about was Logan. It was the best X-Men set movie I’ve seen (and seeing as I’ve only like 2 movies in the brand—that’s not really saying anything). It was based on the Old Logan comics, with a mix in with modern stories, so it gave us Laura, who is a cool character and gave her a modern twist.

Am I sad that it’s a one and done? Hell, yes, I am. Logan was a brilliantly made movie with a great plot. It could have spawned a whole new saga itself, but… nope. One and done. It’s a sad fate for Wolverine, but it’s believable, I guess.

What to even call the more recent saga of movies is unknown to me. I don’t want to call them a reboot, because they aren’t. They mix with the other ones so it’s more of a multiversal movie series than anything. First Class was a good movie, though honestly as a fan of the actual First Class of X-Men… well, I was mad they didn’t follow the original group. The showcase of Apocalypse was sad. Sure, it gave us a look at the next class like Storm and Nightcrawler, but those were the only good points of that movie. How do you turn one of the most terrifying mutants in history into a living muppet? Look at this movie. This is how.

It’s pathetic that it ended with another trip down the Dark Phoenix train. I wanted to rip my hair out when I saw it was going to be called that. I didn’t even see it in theaters because I just couldn’t stand to see another Phoenix movie done badly.

I am not even going to speak about Days of Future Past. Wanna know why? Torture yourself by watching the movie. The only good thing about it is the actors themselves. Patrick Stewart is always a treat, no matter what movie he’s in. But that is legit it. He and Sir Ian McKellen are perfect together and it’s sad that they won’t be coming back to be our magical duo in the MCU.

I’m going to talk for a second on Deadpool. This movie was a long time coming, and yes, it is an X-Men movie by my thoughts, so fight me. Seeing all the work that went into the movie made it worth the wait. Ryan Reynolds is the perfect Wade, which we all already knew, but seeing him in that red and black suit just made my comic fangirl day. The movie has all the humor that you would expect from Deadpool, and all the heart from the X-Men. The second one just dragged all this and more into things and I can’t wait to see what they do to pull him into the MCU.

Now for the cherry on top. The New Mutants. It was Fox’s last chance at the X-Men before Disney bought them back. Personally, it was everything that I thought it was going to be. It was a horror movie for teenagers, with a bit of humor and drama mixed in. Just as The New Mutants should have. They are a group of teenagers who are just figuring out their powers, but instead of being in the safety of Charles Xavier’s arms, they end up in an asylum.

How is that not a perfect premise for a movie?

They had a perfect cast. The casting for each character was nearly spot on, and they didn’t whitewash any of the cast like people thought they might. They didn’t dim the characters’ dark backstories and kept everything right on par with the Marvel Comics backstories.

The future now is in Disney’s hands. We know mutants are coming to the MCU, but will we see them in Doctor Strange’s movie or will we have to wait longer? Will we finally get to see the actual first class of X-Men or will we get another thrown together class that ‘is good for story’? Honestly, I’m hoping that we get a set of teens who do not know what’s happening to them, instead of saying that the X-Men have been around for all this time.

Show us Bobby Drake freezing a park in a small suburb of New York, or Warren Worthington’s wings rupturing his back. Show us Jean Grey joining the professor as the first student, and going to Scott Summers and helping him after his parents die. Give us the original four. Give us the X-Men as we know them in the actual First Class, then build up the rest.

There are hundreds of mutants now available and not all of them were X-Men first thing. Some of them were villains. Some of them joined the Avengers. Some of them were Champions.

And for the love of all that good, Disney… bring back Pietro.

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